TombQuest is a New York Times Bestseller—and you rule the school!

Holy Nile crocodile, people: TombQuest made the New York Times bestseller list! And it didn’t waste any time, either: Book of the Deaddebuted on the List of Lists, securing a perch at lucky number 13 after its first week of release. It spent two more weeks on the Middle Grade list for a grand total of… *gets out calculator* three weeks! It slipped off this week, but here’s hoping it will Rise Again—I mean, come on, everything else in the book does!

And where was I when I got the news? On the road of course. The first leg of TourQuest took me coast to Great Lake to coast, from NY/NJ/CT in the east to Chicagoland in the middle to Texas and California out west. Dozens of amazing school visits, thousands of enthusiastic kids, and half a dozen bookstore events: It was epic (and, OK, occasionally exhausting, but let’s concentrate on that epic part)! What’s that, you demand proof? Pictures or it didn’t happen? Fine! I admire your intellectual rigor—and boy howdy do I have pictures. Here are just a handful of them:

The sun rising over Connecticut (somewhere) during an early morning ride to two snowy school visits.

A warm welcome in Texas!

An auditorium of awesomeness at Skyline Elementary in California!

Epic fan mail from the amazing (and artistic) kids in Naperville, IL!

And back home for a room full of friendly (and familiar) faces at Books of Wonder in NYC!

What a tour, what a trip, what a start. I am happy and humbled by the reception Book 1: Book of the Dead has gotten so far and thrilled that all of this momentum is leading to Book 2: Amulet Keepers, a book I straight up love. Thanks to everyone who attended an event, bought a book, read a book, or just didn’t trip me as I stumbled blearily to my next destination. If you ruled any more, you’d be pharaohs.